


Beyond Possibility

by doublejoint



Category: Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: FEHweek2020, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:53:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27624334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doublejoint/pseuds/doublejoint
Summary: They’re all here, and that’s what matters.
Relationships: Greil & Ike & Mist (Fire Emblem), Greil & Mist (Fire Emblem)
Kudos: 10





	Beyond Possibility

**Author's Note:**

> For [FE Heroes Week 2020](https://twitter.com/feheroesweek) day 3: Reunion
> 
> references to canonical character death

Mist used to watch the summoning sessions every time, anxiously. Who would arrive in this strange world next? Someone she’d known already, or a new but friendly face? The questions still sit in the back of her mind, but there are so many people here now that it’s impossible for her to really get to know them, and of the ones who are--she has the people who are most important to her, and who are still alive in her world. More than that? It’s apparently not impossible here, but “not impossible” and “will definitely happen” are two points far apart from each other. 

Still, she hopes, and though she expresses that feeling to no one, she’s quite sure she’s not the only one. So she slips through the edges of the crowd, mostly made up of newer recruits, surrounding the Summoner, as another figure appears. She doesn’t catch the words he says at first, but the tone of his voice is so instantly familiar it almost doesn’t matter what he’s saying, and through her shoes she’s rooted to the floor. She’d thought she’d forgotten it by now, a memory of a memory of a memory, but truly forgetting, she now realizes, would be impossible. And then she hears the Summoner speak her name.

“Oh, Ike and Mist’s father?”

“Those are my kids! They here too?”

Mist is pushing through the crowd; the clusters of people part to let her through, and as she gets closer she nearly falters and her vision begins to swim with tears. It’s definitely her father, real and alive like the last time she’d seen him, smiling at her, not angry or upset that she wasn’t there for him.

She feels like a young child again in his arms, even though he’s not as large as she remembered--but no, she’s gotten taller, and it makes her think about all the years they haven’t had, all over again, the person, the child she’d been when her father was alive. He has remained at a fixed point in her memory, farther and farther behind her, and this is the person who stands in front of her. Can he reconcile this version of her with the one he’d left behind?

“Father--I’m so sorry—”

“Oh, Mist.”

(He knows, before she can choke out the words, just like he’d known when she’d burned his favorite frying pan, just like the times Ike had let her stay up too late when he’d been watching her. He knows exactly the words she’d been trying to say out of shame, only this time he’s not being stern with her, not asking her what she’d learned from the situation.)

“There’s no need to cry.”

“I know,” Mist says, but she’s still crying; she can’t help it.

* * *

Of course, her father is not just her father; he’s Ike’s father, and the founder of the Greil Mercenaries, and a revered leader. They’re surrounded by people the whole day, Oscar and Mia and Titania and Soren, Commander Anna and Chrom of the Shepherds, her and Ike’s friends from this world, tacticians and generals and Heroes with whom Mist has barely exchanged a handful of words. By lunchtime, Mist has stopped crying, though she feels like starting again every time her father looks at her. He’s really here, really happy to see her and Ike. This isn’t a dream, too much to hope or ask for, just the magic of the Summoner and of this realm.

Still, by the end of the day, they’re left, the three of them all together, Mist and her brother and her father. They’re on the grounds of a castle that is still a little unfamiliar to her, among a large group of people who aren’t strictly speaking a band of mercenaries, but the particulars aren’t important. They’re all here, and that’s what matters.

“Your new friends speak very highly of you,” their father says. “It’s truly a testament to how much you two have grown.”

“Thank you,” Mist says, and Ike echoes her.

“You know—” their father starts, and then swallows.

The crow’s feet around his eyes look deeper than Mist remembers, the grey in his beard more widespread. She doesn’t think this version of her father was from a different timeline where he’d lived longer, but maybe--or maybe her memories are blurred by time and the perspective of a child, of all adults along the same rough continuum and her father immune from the slow creep of mortality. 

“Yes?” says Ike.

“The greatest thing, as a parent, is to know your kids are strong enough to stand without you, that they’re good, independent people. If you two have kids of your own someday--you’ll know that then. I just wish I’d been able to see more of your journeys for myself, you know? And I know your mother would, too. But we’re both--always--so very proud of you.”

“Father…” Ike’s voice wavers like a sled slipping on ice, and Mist squeezes his hand.

“We’ll tell you,” Mist says. “About all we’ve done, and the places we’ve been and the people we’ve met. We have time here.”

Ike nods, resolute.

* * *

And, it turns out, they do have time. They have the next day, the day after that, the three of them fighting side by side on the battlefield, drawing on each other’s strength. This is why people must have wanted to join the Greil Mercenaries back in the day, she realizes--her father’s power, his support, and the support he demands in return. He stands in front of her and takes a blow; she finishes off the opponent with a shot from her staff; Ike slashes at the next foe with his sword. They’re a team, one they could never be in the universes from which they come.

But it’s no use thinking too much about those universes, here, is it? The one that matters is the one here, where they’re all together. 

Her father can again tell what she’s thinking, but this time, Mist can sense, he approves.


End file.
